Apparatus for decorating tile and similar articles



L. V. CASTO July 10, 1934.

APPARATUS FOR DECORATING TILE AND SIMILAR ARTICLES Original Filed Oct. 28, 1952 3 Shees--Sl'xeecl l gmc/who@ z/@/ am @w @d4 aff/ch ma J Mm,

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APPARATUS FOR DECORATING TILE AND SIMILAR ARTICLES Original Filed Oct. 28, 1952 3 Sheets-Sheet 2 H65 www@ 354g, Mzcv/M' @wwwa/If .v.cAsTol Julyo, 1934.

APPARATUS FOR DECORATING TILE AND SIMILAR ARTICLES 3 Sheets-Sheet 3 Original Filed Oct. 28, 1932 rILrILrILrL.

/ki i7 VILrLJNLruL Y Patented July 10, 1934 UNITED STATES` APPARATUS FOR DECORATING TILE AND SIMILAR ARTICLES Lloyd V. Casto, Detroit,

Mich., assignor to Oxford Varnish Corporation, Detroit, Mich., a corporation of Michigan Original application October 28, 1932, Serial No. 639,971. Divided and this application October 3, 1933. Serial No. 691.959

13 Claims.

The present invention is directed to the provision of an apparatus for effecting tile decorations or tile prints on tile blocks formed of either clay or metal and comprises a division of my prior application, Serial No. 639,971, led October 28th, 1932, and the general object thereof is the provision of an apparatus adapted to use a printing plate or roll which may be either photographically derived or derived from lms or plates having designs effected thereon after the manner of the methods disclosed in said prior application.

A further object of my invention is the provision of a mechanism for carrying out certain steps of a method of decorating tiles disclosed in said prior application.

Other objects of my invention will become apparent from the description of the apparatus disclosed' in the drawings and which is hereinafter set forth. 'Ihe essential characteristics of the invention are summarized in the claims.

In the drawings Il show an apparatus which is adapted to automatically effect variations in the application of the tile designs to individual tile, and the various gures of the drawings show a preferred embodiment of the invention, where- -in Fig. 1 is a side elevation of one form of my apparatus; Fig. 2 is a transverse section, as indicated by the line 2-2 on Fig. 1; Fig. 3 is a fragmentary longitudinal section, as indicated by the line 3--3 on Fig. 1; Figs. 4 and 5 are detailed sections, as indicated by the lines 4--4 and 5-5 respectively on Fig. 2; Fig. 6 is a perspective view of the workholder or tile holderand illustrates the manner of positioning the work thereon; Figs. '7, 8, 9 and 10 are diagrams illustrating various relative positions between the 'pattern roll and the number of the ti1e unit.

A printing plate or a printing cylinder is deo rived in the manner described in my prior application, which plate or cylinder will have an area which is many times larger than the face area ofv i any of the individual tiles to be produced or finished, and by the use of which no two tiles will have the same design effected upon the surface thereof, and the apparatus is designed in such manner as to effect a relative shifting between thetile blocks or pieces and the printing cylinderHto greatly increase the variations in the designs applied to the tile.

In the drawings, the preferred form of apparatus is shown as comprising the mainframe 10, which includes upright side frames 11, 12, suitably connected by cross-frame members 15, together with a bearing bracket 16, the latter being mounted on the machine supporting surface, independent of the main frame.

The work is fed to the vmachine on a conveyor 30. 'As shown, this conveyor is of the chain belt type, and is carried by two pairs of sprockets 21 and 24, which are secured to shafts 20 and 23, respectively. The shaft 20 is rotatively jour vnaled in the bearing bracket 16 forwardly of the machine frame, -while the shaft 23 is rotatively journalled in bearings 22 supported on the rear 65 portion of the frame 10, so that the stretches 30 and 31 of the chain are substantially horizontal.

The impressions are made on the work through the medium of a series of rolls carried by respective shafts which are rotatively journaled'lo in the frame and are in vertical alignment with -each other. The lowermost shaft 50 supports a platen roll 51, the uppermost surface of which .is tangentially arranged relative to the lower surfaces of work-supporting members 40, ,which are progressively carried .by the feeding chain 30. A shaft 61 lies immediately above and in alignment with the shaft 50. An offset roll 60 is rigidly secured to the shaft 61 and so arranged that its lowermost surface is tangent sn to the uppermost surface of the pieces of work T carried by the work supporting member 40.

The designs to be impressed on the work are transferred,to the offset roll in the usual manner through the medium of a pattern roll 70. The' 35 pattern roll is mounted on the shaft 'I1 and has mounted on its periphery an etched plate of the type heretofore mentioned.

The pigments are supplied to the pattern roll through the medium of a feed'roller 90 carried by 90 a shaft 91, rotatably mounted in the upper arms of the frame members 10 and 11. The feed rollk normally rotates in a trough 92 which is supplied with pigment from a suitable reservoir 93 from which the pigments are fed by gravity through 95 conduits 94 into the trough.

The excess pigment on the pattern roll is removed by a doctor blade 97 which is resiliently held in contact with the pattern roll 70 by suitable spring members 98. After the impression 100.

has been made the excess pigment remaining on the offset roll is removed by a scraper blade 65. Hence, the roll, upon contacting with the pattern roll 70, may receive a substantially continuous patternlwithout being ae'cted by surplus pig- 105 ment remaining on the roll after the impressions have been made.

'I'he conveyor 30 is driven, in synchronism with. the various rolls which serve to make an im pression on the work. As shown, a motor is 1m mounted in the base of the frame, and its arma-- ture shaft is connected to a gear reduction unit 102, the driven shaft of which is provided with a sprocket 103, which, through/the medium of a,` chain 104 and a sprocket105, rigidly mounted on 115 the platen roll shaft 50, serves to drive the lastnamed shaft. A sprocket 115 is secured to the shaft 50, and through a chain 116 drives a socket 11'7, which, in turn, is rigidly secured to the rear# most sprocket shaft 23, thereby driving the feed chain in synchronism with the platen roll.

The offset roll is directly geared to the pattern roll and to the platen roll 51. As shown in the drawings, a gear 106 is rigidly secured to the platen roll shaft 50 and meshes with a gear 107 rigidly secured to the Aoffset roll shaft 61, which, in turn, meshes with the gear 108, rigidly' secured to the platen roll shaft 71. The offset roll and the platen roll are preferably of the same size as are the gears 106 and 10'7, so that these two rolls will be driven in absolute synchronism with the movement of the belt, thereby preventing any slipping between the rolls and the Work and eliminating blurring of the impression.

The mechanism thus far described is common to various printing machines, which have been used in the past. However, I have arranged the mechanism so that my improved methods may readily be carried out in as simple a machine as is practical. To this end I have provided the chain with lugs 33 against which the workholder 40 may be positioned by the operator and arranged these lugs so that each workholder will have a definite relation to the other workholders. As shown, the workholders are spaced equidistant from each other. However, I contemplate the use of unequal spacing of the workholders to increase the possible number of different patterns before repetition. i

To further increase the number of different patterns obtainable, I move the workholder trays 40 transversely of the direction of travel of the conveyor 30. As shown in Figs. 2 to 6, each'workholder tray is provided with a series of pads 120, which retain the work in position relative to the tray, the downwardly extending sides of the work embracing the sides of the pads. The workholders themselves are placed on the conveyor chain by the operator and when so positioned are free for transverse'movements.

One form of mechanism for imparting a transverse movement to the workholders is illustrated in Figs. 3, 4 and 5. As shown, a pan 150 is slidably mounted on a transverse bar 151 carried by the frame member and is provided with upstanding side walls 154 arranged to embrace the ends of the workholders. The forward portion (left hand in Fig. 3) of the walls 154 are bent outwardly as at 153, so that they will extend beyond the outer edges of the-workholders and, when the conveyor is in operation, act to guide or cam the workholders into a predetermined position within the confines of the walls 154. The workholder guide 150 is reciprated in a direction transverse to the movement of the conveyor. As shown in Figs. 2 and 4, pivotally secured to the guide at 165 is a crank arm 163, the end of which embraces an eccentrically mounted disk 164, carried by a vertical shaft 166. Rigidly secured to this shaft is a tooth wheel 161, having a plurality of arms 162 which extend into the path of the conveyor and of a series of lugs 170 carried by the conwheel 161. Hence, there will be four positions of' the workholder. However, this is merely for purposes of illustration and it is readily apparent that the number of arms 162 may be increased to give more variation in transverse movement. The arrangement is such that the work, in passing through the rolls, between the compression rolls, will receive different patterns.

In Figs. '7 to 10 I diagrammatically illustrate the relative methods of obtaining the many vari- Y ations in pattern. As heretofore mentioned, the periphery of the pattern roll is such that it is not a multiple of the units of work. For instance, if the work units are four inches square, and are spaced one inch apart, the total distance of dimensions of four spaced units placed in a row, would be 20 inches. Assuming that the circum ference of the patternroll is 21 inches, itwould take five revolutions of the roll before its pattern would be duplicated. This would produce different patterns on the work carried by 20 workholders and if each workholder carried, for example, three pieces of work, there would be a totalof 60 patterns. After five revolutions of this -roll, or when the pattern would be duplicated for the first time, a lug 170 would strike the tooth 162 in the sprocket wheel 161 and rotate it a portion of a turn, which would shift the workholder, so that the work would lie in the relative position indicated in Fig. 8, that is, shifted to the right. The workholders would then pass between the impression rolls until the duplication would again be pressed, that is, twenty work- 'holders would pass, at which time another lug on the chain would shift the workholder guide to a second position, which would shift the unit to the diagrammatic position shown in Fig. 9, and so on. .f

From the foregoing, it is readily apparent that a great number of varying designs Acould be had from the same pattern roll before duplication would result. The number of units on the workholders, and the number of workholders which receive an impression during one revolution of the pattern roll, as well as the number of transverse positions of the workholders,` may be .varied,\ as desired, without departing from the spirit of the invention. 'I'he specific numbers and distances described and illustrated have been used for ease of description, and simplicity of drawings.

When the two-color method is used, I use two machines similar to the one heretofore descrlbed, by interrupting the synchronism between the two machines, the number of different patterns then becoming substantially unlimited.

I claim:

.1. In a machine for producing variable designs on artificial tile or the like, the combination of a v printing roll carrying the design to be reproduced, and having an area many times larger than the area of the individual tiles, the design of such printing roll varying throughout the area thereof, a transfer roll and means for presenting the tiles in printing relation to the .transfer roll, said means being arranged to progressively vary the relative position of the tiles and the surface of the transfer rolls in such a manner that a large number of tiles, bearing different designs, can be reproduced on the same printing roll.

2. In a machine of the character described, the combination of a printing roll carrying the design to be reproduced and having an area many times larger than the area of the individual tiles, the design on said roll varying throughoutv the area thereof, a transfer roll, and means for presenting tiles in printing relation to thel transfer tion in the position of the tiles and the surface of roll, said means being arranged to progressively vary the relative position of the successive tile and the surface of the transfer roll in a direction crcumferentially thereof in such a manner that a large number of tiles bearing different designs can be reproduced from the same printing roll.

3. In a machine for producing variable designs on artificial tile or the like, the combination of a printing roll carrying the design to be reproduced and having an area many times larger than the area of the individual tile, the design of said printing roll varying throughout the area thereof, a transfer roll, and means for presenting the tiles in printing relation to the transfer roll,

said means being arranged to progressively varyl the relative position of the tiles and the surface of the transfer roll in a direction transversely thereof in such a manner that a large number of tiles, bearing different designs, can be reproduced from the same printing rolls.

4. In a machine for producing variable designs on artificial tile or the like, the combination of a printing roll carrying the design to be reproduced and having an area many times larger than the area of individual tiles, the vdesign on said printing roll varying throughout` the area thereof, a transfer roll and means for presenting the tiles in printing relation to the transfer roll, said presenting means being arranged to progressively vary the relative positions of the successive tiles and the surface of the transfer roll circumferentially of the transfer roll and transversely thereof, in such a manner that a large number of tiles can be reproduced from the same printing roll without repetition of the design.

5. In a machine for producing variable designs on tile or the like, a combination of a printing roll carrying the design to be reproduced and having an area many timeslarger than the area of individual tiles, the designon said printing roll varying throughout the area thereof, a transfer roll and means for presenting the tiles in printing relation to the transfer roll, and means to progressively vary the relative positions of the successive tiles and the surface of the transfer roll circumferentially of the transfer roll and transversely thereof whereby a large number of tile can be reproduced from the sam'e printing roll without repetition of the design.

6. In a machine for producing variable designs on artificial tile or the like, a combination of a printing roll carrying the design to be-reproduced and having an area many times larger than the area of the individual tiles, the design on said printing roll varying throughout the area thereof, a transfer roll, means for supplying pigment to the said printing roll, feeding means for presenting the tile in printing relation to the trans-r fer roll, means for progressively varying the relative position of such tiles and the surface of the transfer roll and means for gradually changing the shade or color of the pigment applied to the printing roll, whereby a large number o f tiles, bearing a different design, and progressively varying in shade or color, can be reproduced from the same printing roll. j K i '7. In a machine for producing variable designs on artificial tile or the like, the combination of a printing roll carrying the design to be reproduced, and having an area many times larger than the area of the individual tiles, the designs of such printing rolls varying throughout the area thereof, a transfer roll and means for presenting the tiles in printing relation to the transfer roll, and means for causing a progressively relative variathe transfer rolls whereby a large number of tiles, bearing different designs, can be produced from the same printing roll.

8. In a machine for producing variable designs on artificial tile or the like, the combination with a printing mechanism, of means to progressively present a series of tiles to said printing mechanism; and means cooperating with the presenting mechanism to progressively vary the relationship between the successive tiles and the printing mechanism.

9. In a machine forv producing variable designs on artificial tile or the like, the combination with a fixed pattern printing mechanism including a roll adapted to engage the work to impress the printing image thereon, of a feeding mechanism to present comparatively small workpieces in printing relation to` said roll, and means cooperating with the feeding mechanism for varying the relative positions of successively presented tiles transversely of said roll. .v

10. In -a machine of the class described, the combination with a fixed non-repeating pattern printing mechanism, means to present workpieces successively to said printing mechanism, and means cooperating with said presenting mechanism to vary the4 relation between the printing mechanism and successive workpieces in a plurality of directions.

11. In a machine for producing variable designs on artificial tile or the like, the combination with a printing mechanism having a fixed non-repeating design, the area of said design being many times larger than the area of individual tiles, means moving in a fixed path to present tiles to said mechanism, and means to progressively vary the relationship of successively presented tiles to the printing mechanism in the direction of travel of said means, and means to vary the relationship of successively presented tiles to the printing mechanism, in a direction angularly disposed relative to the direction of movement of said presenting means.

12. In a machine for producing variable designa on artificial tile or the like, the combination with a printing mechanism of the fixed non-repeating pattern type having a roller to impress the pattern on the work, the area of said pattern being larger than the area of a single tile, of means driven in synchronism with said roll for progressively presenting tiles to said roll, and means acting at predetermined intervals to vary the relative relation between the roll and successive pieces of work.

13. In amachine for producing variable designs on artificial tile or the like, the combination with a printing mechanism, of a series of interconnected work carrying fixtures adapted to present successive pieces of work to the printing mechanism, said printing mechanism including a roll having a periphery many times larger than one tile and arranged to engage the tile with a rolling action to impress the design thereon, said workholders being spaced apart in a direction normal to the axis of the roll a distance. which, plus the length of the individual tile, is not an even multiple of the circumference of the roll, said workholders being individually shiftable in a direction parallel to the axis of the roll, and means acting at predetermined times to shftsaid workholders a distance less than the distance between one edge of one tile to the corresponding edge of the next adjacent tile.

LLOYD Vi.' GASTO. 

